The opera novice: Mozart's Così fan tutte - Telegraph Opera The opera novice: Mozart's Così fan tutte While its music has always been adored, Mozart's Così fan tutte has been accused of being clumsy or even misogynist. But Sameer Rahim discovers an opera from which all lovers can learn. Image 1 of 2 Unlucky lovers: Così fan tutte performed at The Royal Opera House. Nikolay Borchev as Guglielmo, Michele Losier as Dorabella, Malin Bystrom as Fiordiligi, Charles Castronovo as Ferrando Photo: Alastair Muir Image 1 of 2 Così Fan Tutte performed at The Royal Opera House. Thomas Allen as Don Alfonso, Charles Castronovo as Ferrando, Nikolay Borchev as Guglielmo, Rosemary Joshua as Despina Photo: Alastair Muir By Sameer Rahim , Assistant Books Editor 11:47AM GMT 17 Feb 2012 Follow “We have a certain Abbate da Ponte here,” wrote Mozart to his father in May 1783.

“He promised to write me something new…but who knows whether he will keep his word or even wants to! You know these Italian gentlemen, they are very nice to your face…” The Italian gentleman kept his promise. Lorenzo da Ponte and Mozart collaborated on two blockbuster operas: The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. Their final work together, Così fan tutte, was not a great success. Mozart’s first biographer was puzzled that the composer could “waste his heavenly sweet melodies on such a miserable and clumsy text” and it was not popular until the 20th century. Così fan tutte is rarely given its English name possibly because it’s quite hard to translate. The full title is Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti: “Thus do they all [ie women], or The School for Lovers” but the shortened form is usually “They’re all like that” or “All women behave the same”. This slipperiness suits a work known for being cynical about love yet which has wonderful love-music; and that satirises unreliable women while showing men are hardly faultless.

Così begins with two young bucks Guglielmo and Ferrando boasting about the loyalty of their lovers Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Their friend Don Alfonso, “an old philosopher”, warns they shouldn’t be so trusting: women are all the same. They settle things with a love-test familiar to anyone who’s read medieval fabliaux or seen the US reality show Cheaters . The young men pretend to go to war only to return disguised as Albanians. Each man woos the other’s lover to see whether they remain true. As you might imagine, their plan doesn’t exactly go smoothly. I had seen Così about 10 years ago at the Hackney Empire but couldn’t remember much about it. This week I went to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden to see a revival of Jonathan Miller’s “Armani” production . When it was first put on in 1995, you could have described it as being in modern dress. Nearly 20 years later – despite the addition of modern touches like iPhones and Starbucks – it looked more like a period piece.

(Having the soldiers disguise themselves as Guns N’ Roses-style rockers, for example, might have seemed dated even in the mid-nineties.) Related Articles The opera novice: passion for Puccini's Tosca 03 Feb 2012 But I must confess I wasn’t in a good position to judge the production – literally. One of Così’s funniest scenes comes at the finale of act one when the men pretend to be dying to get the women’s sympathy. All this happened on the right side of the stage, though, and from my restricted view in seat DD11, I couldn’t see a thing. All I can tell you is that the audience was laughing. Unable to see all the action, I decided to listen more carefully. I have never understood what people meant by saying “the music was so witty” but Così has given me an idea. Take the overture : it begins with lordly violins that correspond to the men’s pompous certainty about their women’s faithfulness; then come the sinuous feminine notes of the English horn. The two call and respond to one another in a way that anticipates the back and forth of the love plot.

As the overture ends the music slows and we hear five notes match the five syllables of the title: Co-sì fan tu-te, the warning words that Don Alfonso sings to the same tune in the last scene. Whenever the theme was played, I imagined the old man wagging his finger wearily. As the men sail away to war, Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso sing a trio of enrapturing beauty: “ Soave sia il vento, tranquilla sia l’onda ”, “May the winds be soft, and the waves be calm.” I later learned this is very famous and a popular choice for funerals. In performance, though, it seemed oddly out of place. Miller presents the two women as flighty and self-obsessed, forever looking in the mirror or papping each other on their phones. Amusing enough but how can such shallow creatures produce such heartfelt song? Maybe it’s unfair to blame the production. Having just sung so movingly with the women, Don Alfonso declares: “I’m not such a bad actor after all!” The opera often shifts between ethereal idealisation and messy reality.

The men are in love with images (“Are they goddesses or women?” asks Don Alfonso); and the women simply love being loved – which is why the Albanians’ passionate declarations eventually sway them. Così is often regarded as anti-women but I think it’s harsh on both sexes. Mozart’s letters reveal that he had his own intrigue with two sisters. While boarding with the Weber family, he fell in love with the daughter Aloysia. She was a singer for whom he wrote music but she would not have him. Rumour spread he was flirting with her sister Constanze. “If I had to marry all those with whom I have jested,” he wrote somewhat ungallantly to his father, “I should have 200 wives at least”. Yet in the end he married Constanze. Anxiety about faithfulness (in the opera the word is Costanza) works both ways. Do you trust yourself to remain loyal to one person, especially when you know that he or she will, like everyone, slowly change into someone different? In Così’s final scene everything is revealed and the lovers reunited – but it’s unclear whether the women marry their original lovers or their new ones.

I saw the opera the night before Valentine’s Day. During the interval, I chatted to a medical student and his female companion. I sensed they were on an early date. Neither had been to Covent Garden before and though they told me they were enjoying the production, I wondered whether they could have chosen a more straightforwardly romantic opera. Then again this Così fan tutte shows us that if all women are like that, then all men are too; and that if love’s a game, it's worth learning how to play. Salzburger Festspiele > INSTITUTION > ARCHIV > Archivdetail Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Thus do all – women! For the literal translation of Così fan tutte is not ‘Thus do all people’, since ‘tutte’ signifies the feminine plural. Don Alfonso’s misogynous dictum still seems almost provocatively malicious. Even though during the course of the action the men are exposed as no less fickle than the women, the title continues to work its subtle poison in us.

Da Ponte and Mozart collaborated on three operas: Le nozze di Figaro in 1786, Don Giovanni in 1787 and Così fan tutte in 1790. However, it is arguably not the homogeneity of the two artists’ creations but rather their contradictoriness that makes their collaborative undertakings so rich and inexhaustible. Formerly a priest and banished for adultery, Da Ponte is an adventurer, and if anything not so dissimilar to his Don Alfonso. A man who continues to display an admirably tenacious attachment to the things of this world to the end of his days. Mozart’s genius seems to be made of different stuff. Da Ponte supplies many composers with texts which are scandalous, sarcastic / ironic, contemporary and thus also political, but it is only in Mozart’s hands that they are transformed into unfathomable and deeply human conflicts and dispositions. It is only through his music that Don Giovanni, murderer, rake and feudal lord, becomes an archetype and is heightened in a wholly un-psychological manner. He is a hero, albeit one who is beyond the bounds of morality. He becomes an icon of an ineluctable urge.

Mozart does not make the socially explosive material of Figaro into demarcation lines in the battle of the sexes and classes but – not least in the Count’s plea ‘Contessa, perdono’, rhetorically rather implausible yet musically sublime – weaves them into a utopian reconciliation between men and women, servants and masters. Così fan tutte confirms yet pardons our waywardness in love. And despite the title, it refers to women and men. The composer neither condemns nor accuses. Did this accord with the librettist’s intent or wishes? In any case the oppositional impulses of Da Ponte’s libretti remain valid and constitute the horizon of disquiet to Mozart’s depth of perspective, of which neither we nor Da Ponte are capable. All three operas bear the generic term ‘dramma giocoso’ in their title. In Mozart’s thematic catalogue of his works, Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke, he himself appended the description ‘opera buffa’ to Così fan tutte, deliberately and with good reason, as these pieces are characterized by burlesque humour, situation comedy and dramaturgical absurdity. Or to put it another way, they are also very funny!

The comedy must be preserved in them, for only in laughter is their outstanding characteristic – as well as their dark, inscrutable validity – revealed: generosity. Enlightenment is followed by revolution. The ancien régime falls and the face of Europe will change en-tirely. All three operas are created in these ‘uncertain times’ (uncertain in every sense), and are thus often and justifiably described as political. Nonetheless, Figaro, a social climber, does not want to change society but to get on in it. Here the great equalizer is (still) love, not the guillotine. Da Ponte’s subversiveness lies in exposure, that of Mozart in understanding and forgiveness. In Don Giovanni Da Ponte may have used the shadow of the Commendatore and the murk of infernal damnation to smuggle all sorts of libertinage past the eyes of the censor; Mozart however seems to retain a Baroque conception of ‘heaven and hell’, even though Giovanni’s thrice-repeated ‘No!’ is the visible expression of the staunch pride of an individual against any external directives or authority, even that of God.

Don Giovanni cannot be dealt with by the police or the Church: it is the devil that must fetch this man, for it is a task that lies beyond human powers. However, his descent into hell is due less to the author’s belief in the Plutonic netherworld than his obligation to well-known literary models. Mozart on the other hand gives us a true sense of damnation – against all modern rationality and perception. Finally, Così fan tutte is the only one of the three operas that is not based on existing subject matter. Neverthe-less, one guesses that Da Ponte was inspired by Pierre Carlet de Marivaux (1688–1763). The latter’s exploration of the establishment of identity on the most intimate level, dramatized almost as model experiments, influenced by the comédie italienne, corrupted by the ancien régime and stripped of illusion by the implacable conclusions of the Enlightenment – this curious mélange as exemplified by his play La Dispute has left its unmistakable stamp on Da Ponte’s libretto.

Thus Da Ponte and Mozart dealt with the theme of love three times: in Figaro with love as a simultaneously explosive and cohesive social force, in Don Giovanni with love in the form of insatiable sexual desire, and in Così fan tutte with the loss of innocence: love expelled from Paradise. Sven-Eric Bechtolf Opera - TV Tropes Opera You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Opera legend Maria Callas in the supreme diva role, Norma "Opera is when a guy gets stabbed and instead of bleeding, he sings." — Ed Gardner Opera has been around since the end of the 16th century and still going strong. Major opera composers include Mozart , George Frederic Handel , Giuseppe Verdi , Gioachino Rossini , Wagner , Puccini and Richard Strauss, though there are, of course, many more. The public perception of the difference between opera and The Musical is that musical theatre has breaks for spoken dialogue, whereas opera is "sung through", alternating between "arias" (big numbers) and " recitative " (music written in the style and rhythm of dialogue). While not a bad approximation, it's not always true.

There are a number of Sung Through Musicals , such as Les Misï¿½rables and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , or ones that are nearly so, like The Phantom of the Opera and RENT (which in fact has more Wham Lines spoken than sung!). Likewise, several opera, like The Magic Flute and Carmen , involve spoken dialogue. The actual line between musicals and opera is blurry and kind of technical, but the short of it is that opera doesn't use electronic sound equipment and musicals typically need better actors than singers. Stephen Sondheim was heard to claim, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it." note Although cynical musicologists might say that he arrived at that definition to justify his own musicals being performed in opera houses. The public perception of opera is that it's always a tragedy . This is also not true; the opera genre is as varied as any other. Many operas are comedies, and even the serious ones tend to have at least some humorous parts.

In fact, during the Baroque and Classical periods, operas were generally expected to have happy endings; the concept of tragic operas only became popular during the Romantic period. And while some operas have incredibly well-crafted lyrics and story lines that are true works of art, others are... not quite as brilliant . That said, the opera genre is known for featuring many a work with extremely drawn-out texts focusing on a single (often trivial) theme. As a result, opera texts (libretti) are often mocked, and in many cases it's mainly the quality of the music that makes an opera work, along with the same thing you need for any theatrical production: committed performers bringing the art form to life on stage. Movies have car chases, rock songs have guitar solos, and operas have death-arias (the soprano frequently dies). In fact, both Anna Russell and B.J. Ward (in her one-woman show, Stand-Up Opera) have made entire comedy routines of poking fun at opera tropes. Nowadays we tend to think of operas as high-falutin' fare for the nobs and snobs.

Back in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, though, opera was popular music, to the point that the opening night audience was chock-full of transcriptionists. And it didn't take long for them to produce a saleable product: Rossini once said that by the time he left the opera house for home at the end of opening night, hawkers would be lined up on the street selling copies of the music and lyrics of his arias to those who couldn't afford a ticket. (Yes, this means that media piracy and its critics are Older Than Radio .) Several modern films and other works have been created as operas (that is, entirely consisting of sung dialogue). The most famous "serious" opera film is probably The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg , starring Catherine Deneuve. A very modern example is Repo! The Genetic Opera , which transplants the style into industrial sci-fi horror. The term Rock Opera is thrown around at times for a sub-genre of the themed Concept Album , but most "rock operas" are not produced for the stage (with an exception or two). The nearest thing to a modern successor to opera is Broadway-style Musical Theater .

Indeed, musicals can trace their origins to opera through the operatic subgenre of operetta or light opera, which, as its name implies, is light in terms of subject matter (i.e. it's funny) and music, and often feature a good deal more plain dialogue than ordinary operas. The works of Gilbert and Sullivan are generally considered transitional, as while they considered their works to be comic operas, they would probably be called musicals if produced today; many would argue that musicals are basically the genre of theatre launched by G&S. Used in movies and TV shows to add a touch of class . Or just something artsy. Or for the cast to get bored and fall asleep, which is something that can't be done (too loud). Not to be confused with the Cantata , though at least one cantata, Johann Sebastian Bach 's Coffee Cantata, can be considered a miniature comic opera according to The Other Wiki .

The Oratorio is an intermediate form between the cantata and an opera, being a sung musical work that is long, generally divided into acts, and has recognizable characters interacting to tell a story, but not involving any acting of any significance; they were historically written for circumstances in which opera was infeasible or inappropriate (for being too vulgar), typically religious venues, or when the composer couldn't convince a patron to let him write an opera (which is much more expensive; this cost factor drove George Frederic Handel 's prodigious output of oratorios late in his career, as he had previously focused on opera, but the English public's tastes had shifted away from that form). Tropes typical of opera Lampshaded in Donizetti's Don Pasquale And in Stravinsky's A Rake's Progress And in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia In Mozart's Don Giovanni , one was apparently enforced . ( Opinions vary wildly on whether it's better when performed with or without it.) All There in the Manual Without a program, good luck trying to understand what's going on on stage.

Many modern opera houses (Especially in Germany) show the text right above the stage, and some fancy opera houses even have a small screen on the back of the seats with the text in several selectable languages. Performing opera in translation has disadvantages too. It's often just as hard to make out the words, and when you can the effect isn't always what it might be. For example, to an English ear Tosca may sound dramatic when she sings 'Muori! Muori! Muori! ... È morto.' but translated into English this becomes 'Die! Die! Die! ... He's dead.' 'Nuff said. All Musicals Are Adaptations : Opera gets this from both sides. Many operas are adaptations of existing works, and a number have been adapted into modern musicals. At the Opera Tonight : Naturally ! If your characters are looking for a classy evening out, it doesn't get much classier. Berserk Button : Unless you have a death-wish, do not ever even imply that The Phantom of the Opera is an Opera in front of opera fans. You will be swiftly struck down.

Also do not ever say that "popera" singers such as Andrea Bocellinote Although he studied with the renowned Franco Corelli or, dear God, Charlotte Church, are opera singers. An opera fan's pet peeve, Berserk Button to a few die-hards. Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress : Poor, poor Lucia di Lammermoor. In many modern productions of La Traviata this happens with Violetta's nightgown for extra realism (she's got TB). Brawn Hilda : A rather unfortunate stereotype of opera singers (as in the saying, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings"). Although it's usually very exaggerated, it does have a degree of Truth in Television since the vocal pipes necessary to support a huge operatic voice often go along with a larger frame . The trope may have originated from Wagner's Die Walküre ,note Specifically, the conclusion, where she's put in suspended animation and surrounded by fire. where the main character, Brünnhilde , is often played by an imposing woman. (Wagner's music has a lot of long, sustained phrases and singing those develops back and shoulder muscles.) Though if you think that means opera singers are unattractive, think again .

If you're watching work from the 17th or 18th century (where opera houses and orchestras were much smaller) this is usually averted, if not sometimes inverted; soubrette sopranos who play roles like Despinanote in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte or Zerlinanote in Mozart's Don Giovanni are usually quite small women, cast for their girlish vocal instrument. Women in 'trouser roles' (playing a boy) in these operas are likewise often petite. Sexy, beautiful male and female singers date back to the earliest days. Lily Pons ◊ was barely five feet tall and had a voice like a crystal canary . The "Brawn Hilda" image is probably based on Kirsten Flagstad, due to her having performed in full costume the wild "Ho-jo-to-ho!" chant from The Valkyrie in several 1940s films. Kirsten wasn't fat, just powerfully built like an Amazon, partly from the breath control needed for Wagnerian singing. Camp : Especially in Richard Strauss operas. Rossini has his moments too as does Mozart.

Classical Mythology : Baroque (1601-1750) operas tended to draw on these for their plots. One of the most popular settings throughout the history of opera was the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. This basically persisted until Jacques Offenbach produced Orphee Aux Enfers (Orpheus in Hell) in 1858, a comic opera basically satirizing nearly three hundred years of Orphean opera settings. It was essentially the Airplane! of operas, with its most (in)famous moment being ''The Infernal Galop,'' A.K.A. The Can Can Song . Two of Richard Strauss' operas draw on it, Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos (although in a different way) Colorblind Casting : In the world of opera, your race and appearance don't matter to the public in the least. Even when the character being played is of a very specific nationality. It is perfectly normal for any race to play any other onstage. For example, the world famous black American soprano, Leontyne Price, was very popular in the role of the Ethiopian princess, Aida.

But she was also popular in the roles of Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Leonora — Italian, Japanese and Spanish characters respectively. This can, occasionally, result in Black Vikings . Quite literally even, when it is a production of Wagner. Age doesn't matter either. Fifty-year-old singers have played fourteen-year-olds and gotten away with it. All they want is your voice and acting ability. Creator Couple : Practically every opera by Vincenzo Bellini that you will see (except his last, I Puritani) has a libretto by Felice Romani. Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannstal. Mozart worked with many librettists but his partnership with Lorenzo da Ponte produced the Big Three of The Marriage of Figaro , Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte amongst many others Creator Killer : Even for a great success, William Tell did this to Gioachino Rossini . And on the subject of Rossini, Constantino Dall'Argine did a version of The Barber of Seville that was first performed two days before Rossini died. History repeated itself and Dall'Argine's work disappeared forever.

Leon Kirchner had his operatic career destroyed from the get-go, where Lily gave one of the quickest bailouts in operatic history. (He still thought it was his best work.) Crosscast Role : There are many "trouser roles" for women playing men and several "skirt roles" for men playing women. In the Baroque period (Opera's earliest century-and-a-half), especially in those areas where the pope's influence was strongest such as Rome, female roles were often played by male castrati. (And, yes, a castrato is exactly what you think it is.) Deus ex Machina : Especially in earlier works. Downer Ending : Anything by Puccini or Verdi. Bittersweet Ending : In the rare cases it's not. For example La fanciulla del West. Maybe La rondine too. Anything by Puccini... excepting the chamber comedy Gianni Schicchi. Although, the entire Donati clan may disagree that it was quite so funny. Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" comes to mind. Ending Fatigue : A common complaint of several operas. Epic Instrumental Opener : Except that in Opera-ese we call it an overture.

Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory : Individual operas may very well be subject to this, but the entire form of Opera is actually a product of this. In attempting to revive classical Greek plays to the theatre of the Renaissance era, interested scholars decided that the Greek plays were meant to be sung in their entirety. New works followed suit, and the rest is history. Evil Sounds Deep : Usually. Although this is subverted far more often than you'd think. There are many good guy low voice-ers (Figaro, Hamlet, Cenerentola, and Rosina par example) and more than one high voiced baddy (Duke of Mantua, Queen of the Night, Pinkerton and Turandot to name a few) in operatic repetoire. However, it is generally safe to guess that the baritone is not who you should be rooting for. David Merrill: You're the rat again, aren't you, Daddy? Robert Merrill, baritone: The baritone is always the rat, my boy. The darker and heavier the voice, the meaner and nastier the villain.

In the Baroque period, heroic roles were often written for castrati, whose unbroken voices were synonymous with virtue and heroism on the opera stage. The broken normal male voice was usually assigned to villains or servants. A lament of contraltos (the lowest and darkest of female voices) is that contralto roles are always either " bitches , britches , or witches". Farce : The plot of many comic operas. There's even a whole genre called "opera buffa" (to distinguish it from " opera seria "). Notable examples are The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, and L' Elisir d' Amore, all of which are screamingly funny provided the cast is on their toes. Femme Fatale : All the best diva roles. Special mention goes to Violetta from La Traviata. Flame War : For all the veneer of civilisation in the genre, opera enthusiasts can get just as vicious in defense of their favourite singers and composers as any other fans. Just go have a look at the comments on any opera clip on YouTube . Fighting will branch into nasty personal insults, sometimes with the contestants switching languages to show off their intellectual prowess .

Gender Bender : Not only are many male roles played by women, but many of these men end up crossdressing . Getting Crap Past the Radar : A lot of Mozart. For example, Don Giovanni sings about Zerlina's "honeyed lips", using Italian slang for vagina. Gorgeous Period Dress Pretty much every traditional opera production has really beautiful costuming. Such as this ◊ This production of an opera about Elizabeth I takes it Up to Eleven . Gratuitous Foreign Language : As mentioned above, it's traditional for operas to be performed in their original language rather than translated. Groin Attack : In the early days of opera, it was considered improper for women to appear on stage, but there were still treble singers. This was because if a prepubescent boy had a good singing voice, a simple operation could enable him to preserve it permanently into adulthood. Yes, "castrato" means exactly what you think it does .

At the time, they often became wildly successful superstars, but the practice fell out of favor by the mid-1800s if not before then; since that time, parts written for castrati have generally been either given to counter-tenors or turned into " trouser roles " for a female soprano (if the role is male) or given to sopranos (if the role is female). Happily Ever After : Anything by Mozart or Rossini. Rossini has had his share of tragic endings as well, in his lesser known 'serious' operas. "I Am" Song : "Mi chiamano Mimì", "Io son l'umile ancella", "Largo al factotum della città" among others... Iconic Outfit : A shrieking Brawn Hilda in armor and a viking helmet brandishing a spear. (She is a flanderized version of Brünnhilde from The Ring of the Nibelung , and doesn't actually appear in any modern productions; see Shallow Parody .) and this , for starters.

In fact, some famous singers like Birgit Nilsson & Franco Corelli made it a friendly sport over who'd black out first from holding that high C in Turandot . Everyone else peed in excitement, of course. Expect this trope (especially of the soft-but-incredibly-held-out variety) when you see Montserrat Caballé on the cast list or album notes. The "Vittoria!" from Tosca is also a good example. See attached. Siegmund's cry of " Wälse! " in Die Walküre is a favorite of Wagnerian tenors. "Di Quella Pira" from Verdi's Il Trovatore has been troublesome for almost every tenor who has played Manrico. He is expected (pretty much forced) to end it on a very long and hard high C (pretty ridiculous considering the note isn't even written.) most tenors take the key down a half or whole step and sing either a high B or Bb. And the fact that Manrico is usually played by a dramatic tenor doesn't help. Franco Corelli was a legend at this and usually sang it in the original key topped with a thrilling high C.

See for yourself " here " Kill 'em All Large Ham : Opera has long been full of hammy divas and divos (many roles, and perhaps the very nature of Romantic opera, lend themselves to this), though singers and productions seem to be averting this trope more and more these days, partly thanks to speakers making it no longer necessary to have No Indoor Voice . Special mention to Escamillo from Carmen there's no larger ham than a bullfighter who sings the famous Toreador's Song. A lot of Mozart's bass or baritone roles, Figaro and Don Giovanni especially. Leitmotif : Wagner commentator Hans von Wolzogen is the Trope Namer , although the concept predated Wagner by quite a while Love Hurts Love It or Hate It : Richard Wagner . Composer of the finest music and producer of the best plots ever, or overly bombastic and just too damn long-winded? One of the less intelligent criticisms of Wagner is that he was " Adolf Hitler 's favorite composer". This is kind of unfair; Wagner couldn't possibly have pandered to Hitler in any way, since he died before Hitler was even born.

(And of course, Hitler Ate Sugar .) Modern Opera especially, there really is no in between. Love Triangle Man of a Thousand Voices : Otherwise known as 'character singers'. Singers who specialise in art songs (as opposed to opera only) can also modulate their voice on demand. Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number : Not omnipresent, particularly given how difficult it is to write one. But Lucia di Lammermoor and The Marriage of Figaro have especially notable ones, a sextet and septet respectively. Pretty much a given in bel canto or early Verdi. Almost each act would end in a huge cabaletta for the main characters and a chorus. Frequently the main female character (usually a soprano) will interpolate a high note at the end of these, especially Maria Callas, famous for her gigantic high Eb at the end of the Triumphal Scene in Verdi's Aida Melismatic Vocals : Or 'coloratura'. Bread-and-butter for ALL voice, but ideally for belcanto roles. A huge plus if you have a large voice (dramatic coloratura) - although having a large voice and a dramatic voice is not necessarily the same thing.

Lampshaded gloriously in most Baroque operas. Expect the vocal line to fall when singing about sadness or despair, rise up when singing about glory, anger and war, and have crazy roulades when singing about being in love (as in "adrift in a sea of love"). Many operas have three acts, especially those of Wagner. For Verdi and Puccini, their third operas (respectively with Nabucco and Manon Lescaut) formally launched their careers. Many operas also feature three main characters. Usually one soprano, one tenor and then a lower voice of either gender. A few examples: Violetta, Alfredo, and Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La Traviata . Tosca, Mario, and Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca Aïda, Radames, and Amneris in Verdi's Aïda. Faust, Marguerite, and Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust. Norma, Pollione, and Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma.

Rigoletto, The Duke, and Gilda in Verdi's " Rigoletto " Butterfly, Pinkerton, and Suzuki in Puccini's " Madama Butterfly " Nabucco, Abigaille, and Zaccaria in Verdi's " Nabucco " Lucia, Enrico, and Edgardo in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" Calaf, Turandot, and Liu in Puccini's " Turandot " Scenery Porn : In opera, the design is either minimalist or it's the stuff that makes you drool rainbows. Shallow Parody : A typical parody of opera is likely to feature a shrieking fat lady in armor and a horned helmet , brandishing a spear. There's only one opera that's ever featured a somewhat similar costume, The Ring of the Nibelung 's Brünnhilde, and it's been pretty much phased out in modern productions.

(Admittedly though, it is a fairly Iconic Outfit , so it may perhaps be excused in cases where quick visual shorthand is needed to establish "Oh, an opera!") If the parody isn't this, then it probably involves a fat Italian barber ï¿½ Satellite Love Interest : Very common - as in the Commedia dell'Arte, viewers are given little explanation as to who the inamorati actually are. They're young and in love, which usually sums up both characters' entire personalities (or at least the soprano's). Screaming Woman : This is the cliché image to most non-opera fans. One or several women singing so high and loud that it sounds more like screaming. Think of the character Bianca Castafiore in Tintin . Signature Line : Ask someone to sing an imitation of opera, and they will probably bellow, "Figaro, Figaro, Figarofigarofigaro!" This is indeed a line from Figaro's famous aria "Largo al Factotum" in Rossini's The Barber of Seville note not, however, as you might expect , from The Marriage of Figaro .

Small Reference Pools : Despite having produced many famous names in the field the general public may only know Enrico Caruso, Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti. If you are very lucky they may also remember Placido Domingo and José Carreras. Fans of Freddie Mercury will recognize Montserrat Caballé from the duet Barcelona . And even most of these names were better known after their glory period, when their voices were already considered less good and they hit the commercial circuit, because most non-opera fans wouldn't be able to tell the vocal difference anyway. Talking Is a Free Action : Well, singing is. You often find lengthy arias in dramatic moments along the lines of "Yes, now we must quickly run away, silently, before anyone spots us, yes, softly, let us runï¿½" Tear Jerker : Some operas, especially ones by Puccini, seem engineered specifically to be as heart-rending as possible.

That Makes Me Feel Angry : In opera, this trope is pretty much a must-have, since the music is more important than the words and many singers don't bother acting things out too much.note Other singers are skilled actors, and a handful emphasize the dramatics so powerfully that they are regarded as "vocal actors", not just singers. Among these are Tito Gobbi, Maria Callas, Blanche Thebaum and Dolora Zadjik. Opera is full of (insert adjective here) mi sento (I feel) and other status-descriptions. Or the composer/librettist put it in to give the singer an indication of how the character should feel; singers are expected to act nowadays. Also, during the Baroque era, musical drama tended to be structured according to the so-called doctrine of affects , with consecutive numbers depicting contrasting emotions - a lilting love duet followed by a furious vengeance aria, for instance. If the idea is to juxtapose readily identifiable emotions for maximum effect, it makes sense to flag them in the libretto.

Theme Naming : Ariane et Barbe-bleue was written by Maurice Maeterlinck, who named Bluebeard's five former wives after female characters in his own plays: Mélisande from Pelléas et Mélisande, Alladine from Alladine et Palomides, Ygraine and Bellangère from La mort de Tintagiles, and Sélysette from Aglavaine et Sélysette. Theme Song Reveal : Most notably in Wagner's Die Walküre In Carmen the refrain of the Toreador's Song appears in the first three minutes of the overture and appears in every act thereafter. World of Ham : Pretty much all of them. An Enforced Trope back then, since you have to SHOUT for the back audience and poetically narrate each little thing that is happening to you while epic music plays . Willing Suspension of Disbelief : Pretty much a given for all operas ever. Many plots are completely implausible, The Casanova is often played by a short, fat, middle aged guy, The Ingenue is often played by a tall, buxom woman, and there's only so much costuming can do.

Opera is pretty much built on this trope - generally, the audience is there for the music. It also creates a certain amount of Colorblind Casting , since the voices are usually cast indiscriminately of the singer's race. Yandere : Many a love rival, of both genders. Examples appearing in fiction Amadeus : Several works by Mozart, of course. Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony : The book pretty much starts out with Artemis attending an opera, specifically Norma, and commenting on how Butler does not know how to appreciate an opera. Batman Begins : Thomas and Martha Wayne — as well as young Bruce — see Mefistofele. Little Bruce gets shit scared and they go out... Death by Origin Story ensues. In the novel and the silent film , Gounod's Faust features in several key scenes. In Philadelphia , Andrew Beckett listens to the aria "La mamma morta" from Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano. Pretty Woman : La Traviata (an opera about a prostitute who falls in love with a rich man). Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva features, well, a diva. She performs an aria on the soundtrack.

Quantum of Solace : Tosca , probably chosen because of the parallel between its Scarpia Ultimatum and the General's evil behavior Rasputin: The Romanov family attends a performance of "Norma". The awesome march from Act II is heard. Robot Chicken had a sketch consisting of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan being performed as an Italian opera. Featuring such great lines as "Oh no! My ear! I'm not supposed to get eels in it!"note It's a Space Opera. Seinfeld : episode "The Opera" centers around the gang going to a performance of Pagliacci The Simpsons : one episode (" Homer of Seville ") has Homer become an overnight opera star, and includes snippets from several shows. Alien operas occasionally pop up throughout Speculative Fiction . Klingon and Centauri and Narn operas spring to mind. Star Wars : Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (a literal example of a Space Opera ) The Talented Mr. Ripley film version has Ripley watching a production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The Untouchables : A very moved Al Capone struggles to keep a straight face during Pagliacci Several Victorian Romance Emma characters are opera fans.

Rossini's Barber of Seville plays a minor role in the story. Opera composers and singers with their own page: Overlooked Opera: Così fan tutte - WQXR Overlooked Opera: Così fan tutte Wednesday, November 27, 2013 - 03:00 PM By Fred Plotkin Cosi fan tutte at Salzburg Festival with Luca Pisaroni, Martina Janková, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Gerald Finley, Malin Hartelius, Martin Mitterrutzner (© Michael Pöhn) Back in July, I wrote the first of what I said would be an occasional series called Overlooked Operas. Readers seemed to agree that Weber’s Der Freischütz has been undervalued, especially in the United States. I suspect there will not be similar consensus for today’s Overlooked Opera, Mozart’s Così fan tutte. More "Così fan tutte," I can hear you shriek, “how is that an overlooked opera?” To which I would answer that “overlooked” is a word with shades of meaning.

It can mean “ignored” or “forgotten,” but also can suggest something whose merit is not given its due. That is the case here. I think Così (1790) is the victim of being neither here nor there in the public and professional perception of Mozart’s works. The composer’s two previous collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte are hard acts to follow. Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786) is often thought of as the first work in the standard operatic repertory that continues until Puccini’s Turandot (1924). Le Nozze di Figaro is brilliant comedy with beautiful music and is often said to have played a role in the political upheaval that spread through Europe in its wake. Don Giovanni (1787) is thought by many people to be the best opera ever written, and there are certainly days when I agree with that. It is a cosmic miracle concerning issues great and small and is arguably one of the most difficult operas to stage and perform.

But it is one of the rare works of art, along with Hamlet, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and a few others, that are universally revered yet never fully understood. How can one follow that with an opera about two sisters who are duped into taking each other's boyfriend? It did not help that da Ponte himself referred to Così as "the drama that holds third place among the sisters born of that most celebrated father of harmony." I looked in the Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia (Cambridge’s composer encyclopedias are catnip for music lovers) and discovered that da Ponte thought of this opera by the name – La Scuola degli Amanti (The School for Lovers) – that ultimately became its subtitle. The librettist was not pleased when Mozart imposed a new title on the opera. Così fan tutte is often translated as "Women are all the same" but a more literal translation is “This is how all women do things” or perhaps “This is how all women are.” The lack of specificity in the title can prove frustrating to people who insist that everything be comprehensible and cut-and-dried. The ambiguity (a characteristic found in Don Giovanni) makes this opera more complex and more intriguing.

According to the Cambridge encyclopedia, the title came from a line in Le Nozze di Figaro: “Count Almaviva’s discovery of Cherubino hiding in Susanna’s room causes Basilio to comment: ‘Così fan tutte le belle/Non c’è alcuna novità’ or ‘All the beauties do it/There’s nothing new in that.’” When directed and played as a sex farce of mistaken identities, Così remains superficial. But as an exploration of the quicksilver changes of the human heart, it makes the two previous da Ponte operas seem naive by comparison. If every heart harbors a mystery (to paraphrase a lyric from Verdi’s Ernani), what happens in Così fan tutte is that it is Mozart in his music, much more than da Ponte in his words, who plumbs the depths of the mystery in each of the six characters in the opera. It takes a superb conductor to grasp this and a worldly stage director to also discover these mysteries in the music. Both of them must find ways to help the cast members use their own sensibilities to connect with these mysteries and then perform the opera without indicating emotions before they should be revealed.

This is extremely challenging but richly rewarding on the rare occasions when everything works. Matthew Polenzani, Susanna Phillips, Isabel Leonard and Rodion Pogossov in the Met's 'Così fan tutte' (Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera) The opera has another element that makes it more challenging and rewarding than the previous two da Ponte works: The stage director has many ways to interpret the ending. At the start of the opera, soprano Fiordiligi is dating baritone Guglielmo. Her sister, mezzo-soprano Dorabella, is dating tenor Ferrando. At the instigation of a cynical older man, Don Alfonso, and with assistance of the sisters' maid Despina, the two young men return in disguise and pursue the other’s girlfriend. Dorabella falls first while Fiordiligi maintains a resistance to Ferrando's wooing. Ultimately, Fiordiligi and Ferrando are caught by surprise as they discover the genuine intensity of feeling (as opposed to raw lust) that they have for one another. In most of the 170 years that followed the opera’s premiere, the four young people returned to their original partners and, supposedly, all ends happily.

With more psychological study and the evolving status of women, by the 1960s, some directors staged the opera so that the couples switched partners at the end and all ended happily (we are asked to assume). In recent years, I have seen productions in which the four characters stand alone at the end, dazed and confused by what they have experienced. This seemed logical until I saw the revelatory ending in Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s new production at the Salzburg Festival last summer. As the opera concluded, Fiordiligi and Ferrando had found soulmates in one another. Dorabella wanted to be with Guglielmo but he was not interested. With his preening male ego, he delighted in the fact that he was able to seduce his friend’s girlfriend while watching his own girlfriend remain faithful. When Fiordiligi opted for Ferrando, Guglielmo became enraged with jealousy and rejected Dorabella (about whom he never really cared) and stormed away. The message here was that all women do not behave that way but lots of men do.

Another reason I think Così should be held in higher regard is that when James Levine made his very-welcome return to the orchestra pit at the Met on September 24, this is the opera he chose. The other works he conducts this season are two operas he is closely associated with: Falstaff, in Robert Carsen’s wonderful production that receives its Met premiere on December 6, and Wozzeck , which Levine has led more than 40 times at the Met yet still finds depth and new meaning in this masterpiece each time he returns to it. If James Levine thinks so highly of Così fan tutte to put it with two of his very favorites, that is good enough for me. Tags: Fred Plotkin FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information. Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life.

In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian." Show 11 comments

Question: Which Mozart opera has a title that can be translated into English as 'Thus Do All Women'?
Answer: 'COSI FAN TUTTE'